Friday, April 30, 2010

LIMA - The acquittal by a Peruvian court of two soldiers and a police officer charged with the forced disappearance of four peasant farmers in the Andean highlands region of Ayacucho is viewed as a serious setback by the families of victims of human rights violations during the 1980-2000 civil war.

As for the rating agencies, how reliable are they? They have a pretty questionable credibility, as they were the ones who gave a triple-A rating to the subprime securities issued by Lehman Brothers, just 3 days before its bankruptcy.These same "clairvoyant" agencies are extremely powerful and do as they please on financial markets, including on those unregulated known as OTC (Over The Counter Derivatives)

or the toxic markets in which agents buy insurance against the risk of default, CDS (Credit Default Swaps). They are closely related to Anglo-Saxon banks (including Goldman Sachs and Citibank). These agencies do not work with a crystal ball, but with the abundant data provided by the issuer of the loan or the intelligence provided by the market of specific financial products.

On the security side, the U.S. seeks total control of Mexico's security apparatus. With the creation of NORCOM (the North Command) designed to protect the U.S. landmass from terrorist attack, Mexico is designated North America's southern security perimeter and U.S. military aircraft now have carte blanche to penetrate Mexican airspace.

Moreover, the North American Security and Prosperity Agreement (ASPAN in its Mexican initials) seeks to integrate the security apparatuses of the three NAFTA nations under Washington's command. Now the Merida Initiative signed by Bush II and Calderon in early 2007 allows for the emplacement of armed U.S. security agents -- the FBI, the DEA, the CIA, and ICE -- on Mexican soil and contractors like the former Blackwater cannot be far behind.

Wars are fought for juicy government contracts and $1.3 billion in Merida moneys are going directly to U.S. defense contractors -- forget about the Mexican middleman.On the energy side (the "prosperity" euphemized in the ASPAN), the designated target is, of course, the privatization of PEMEX, Mexico's nationalized oil industry, with a particular eye out for risk contracts on deep sea drilling in the Gulf of Mexico utilizing technology only the EXXONs of this world possess.

Seven Colombian families displaced 14 years ago by paramilitaries, who two months ago returned to their villages of Blanquicet and Macondo, in the central Colombian department of Antioquia, report they are being threatened with a massacre to force them to leave again.Rumors have been circulating since Wednesday that the recently returned families will again be forced to abandon their land, according to El Espectador.

Uraba police commander Colonel Victor Angel Gutierrez Ortega said police would meet with the community to discuss the situation, "accompanied by the army, we will evaluate the details of the situation and the circumstances of the threat and take necessary measures to provide security to the farmers."

The troubles in Blanquicet and Macondo date back to 1996 when a paramilitary known as Lazarus "Mono Pecas" moved to the community, displacing 94 families and forced them to sell land worth 1.5 million COP per acre at 200,000 COP an acre. Since then, legal proceedings to establish ownership of the land have been problematic and carried out against the backdrop of murder.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has denied claims by former paramilitary leader Salvatore Manusco that the AUC coalition helped Uribe's election campaign in 2002, reported Pais."Because of my democratic and Christian convictions, I have never cooperated with narco-traffickers, narco-guerrillas or narco-paramilitaries," said President Uribe.

Uribe was responding to comments made by Salvatore Mancuso during a Supreme Court hearing. Mancuso said that several paramilitary leaders met in 2001 at the AUC conference and spoke about the need to support "a candidate with an ideology akin to that of the paramilitaries" on issues like security and combating rebels.He claims that the paramilitaries chose Alvaro Uribe and that they made contacts within his party and donated funds to help his presidential campaign.

Mancuso is not the only person to have linked the current president with the paramilitaries. Freddy Rendon Herrera, alias "El Aleman," Francisco Villalba, alias "Cristian Barreto," and Miguel Angel Mejia, alias "El Mellizo," have all made similar accusations.Mancuso also claimed that the AUC were in contact with DAS official Joes Miguel Narvaez.Mancuso was extradited to the US and stands accused of over 10,000 murders.

The IMF prescriptions for Serbia that featured in three weeks of negotiations with the country's top decision-makers in February 2010 were in fact highly familiar extracts from the Fund's conventional playbook that have proved to be so deeply unpopular in many countries around the world in previous decades:privatisation, the reduction of pensions and the number of pensioners, the raising of the age for pension provision, a low single digit inflation rate, the stabilisation of the exchange rate, and the freezing of salaries in the public sector with significant cuts in the number of public sector employees.

The upshot was a period of uncertainty and stress for millions of people living on the edge of or below the poverty line, for the 1.6 million pensioners and 800,000 people working in the public sector with precious few assurances that these measures will stave off the further economic and social demise of Serbia.

Yet the backlash is mostly felt by these members of the public, viewed as reform-shy laggards by the legions of economists and government advisors happy to toe the line insisted on by IMF and World Bank programs. While criticism of popular resistance to these measures comes readily, level-headed analysis of the consequences of IMF policies and World Bank programs from its proponents tends to be all too rare

The colonial police state has blossomed in France and it lurks behind Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070. Beware, Americans, of the emerging police state. Beware, lest we all reap what [France] and Arizona now sow.

Peru's President Alan Garcia said on Wednesday that Venezuela's economic model and policies in the region are "not quite appropriate," adding that Hugo Chavez rushed to close Venezuela borders.According to AP, Garcia was responding to claims made by the Lima Chamber of Commerce on a Venezuelan government's decision. According to analysts in the Peruvian capital, such move will hurt 614 Peruvian companies that in 2009 exported clothes and footwear to Venezuela."The economic model implemented there (in Venezuela) is not the most appropriate one. They have inflationary problems, lack of investments, jobs, and technology. They have had blackouts and the industry is beginning to be affected," Garcia said.

The Middle Magdalena farmers disagreed with the measures stipulated in the Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, that the national government signed with the European Union. The initiative, which rejects the trade between Colombia and the old continent, was supported by the National Farmers Federation, who will ask the Congress an amendment of the arrangements made for the dairy sector.

The intention of the Federation is to convene for the next May 19, the day the agreement is ratified by Congress, a national day of mobilization to disagree with the treaties. This was confirmed by the very head of the planning office Fedegan Leyva Fernando Pinzón, during their meeting yesterday in Barrancabermeja entity developed more than 60 small dairy farmers in the region.

"The negotiation will affect the sustainability of livestock, because the shock will be strong at the level of competence in leading countries such as France, Germany, Holland," said the senior executive. According to Leyva Pinzón, the treaty puts at a disadvantage to producers who will have to compete with the strong agricultural policies of countries that are part of the European Economic Union.

"The agreements mean that there will be a non-tariff trade flow production apparatus in which they compete with their products without tariff barriers. Colombia has not been prepared on the health aspects, and would be condemned to agreements such as these that the cattle Colombia only import the product, and in that game was not Fedegan points. "

Low competitiveness -The coordinator of the Regional Unit of Livestock Development for Santander, Sur de Bolívar and Cesar, URDG, Clara Mercedes Torres Herrera, said that most farmers in the region and the country are small producers. "The Colombian cattle lacks competitiveness. We are very critical issues, in the sense that we have difficulties in production, we have milk that is not paid as it should be paid, and the quality of milk is not the best, "said Torres Herrera.

Lower payments must be reported -Small dairy farmers complained to the National Cattlemen's Federation for payment of a liter below those stipulated by law the head of the Office of Planning Fedegan Leyva Fernando Pinzón, urged farmers to report cases to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce. "The buyer can pay under the requirements of the Act but has been obliged to submit product quality analysis in laboratories, to establish discounts and rebates. Producers must show strips of payment where such values are stipulated, "the senior executive.

Since March 1, 13 members of the resistance movement have been gunned down. Paramilitary forces reminiscent of 1980s-style death squads are thought to be responsible.Since the coup last June, a number of union leaders have died under equally mysterious circumstances. Many Hondurans believe the military-backed government to be responsible for these assassinations. Of the 43 members of the FNRP that have been killed, about half have been trade unionists.

Gilda Batista, director of the Tegucigalpa-based human rights organization Refuge Without Limits (ASL), has investigated the murder of Zepeda and other recently executed union leaders. Batista says her research leads her to believe that assassination squads are being “financed by the corporatocracy and military.”

At this hearing, Dario Mejia from the ONIC affirmed that "more that 80% of [indigenous] territories have been conceded for the implementation of economic projects without respect for our right to previous consultation." Indigenous communities in Colombia are frequently victims of forced displacement. According to Mejia, "between 2002 and 2008, over 70,000 indigenous people were registered for individual or collective internal displacement; in 2009 alone, 6,201 indigenous people were violently expelled from their ancestral homelands.

" Mejia exclaimed that "We are worried about the role of the United States in supporting policies that affect our cultures and can put our existence at risk."
He noted that US support of fumigations and Colombia's democratic security policy is leading to serious violations of the rights indigenous communities.

As such, the ONIC "is very pleased to see the introduction of House Resolution 1224 by Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia on Recognizing and honoring the important work that Colombia's Constitutional Court has done on behalf of Colombia's internally displaced persons, especially indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombians, and women. [The ONIC] hopes that all Members of the US Congress co-sponsor this resolution and that the House of Representatives passes it soon."

Goldman Sachs employees, such as Ken Newcombe, were architects of the World Bank's Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF). Meanwhile the bank itself emerged as the most important financial instrument in the carbon market following the Rio Earth Summit, despite it bankrolling more than 130 major fossil fuel projects during the past decade, with a fossil fuel project calculated as being financed every 14 days.

Since Rio, CO2 emissions from World Bank-related projects are estimated at 43 billion tons.The interlocking nature of these relationships is clear. The percentage of officials at the World Bank composed of economists and bankers produced by institutions such as Goldman Sachs is 50 per cent, for example, as compared to development specialists at 8 per cent. And, 75 per cent of financial institutions use standards linked to the World Bank.

The winner of World Bank policies is none other than the US. A US Treasury report unashamedly reveals this cherished synergy: ‘The policies and programmes of the World Bank Group have been consistent with US interests. This is particularly true in terms of country allocation questions and sensitive policy issues. The character of the Bank, its corporate and voting structure, ensures consistency with the economic and political objectives of the US.’

Through the instruments of the World Bank, ‘developing’ the economies of heavily indebted regions is now subject to the free market agenda writ large, as forested regions become classified as natural assets that can be exploited through export-oriented activities, which are inevitably dependent on foreign investment.

Needles to say, given that there is a 92 per cent correlation between rising arms sales and oil sales, with 80 per cent of the world's oil reserves controlled by rent-seeking or rentier governments, the roots of climate change and Northern ‘wealth,’ remain intimately interlocked with that of Africa's suffering and poverty, particularly in those regions whose militarised regimes – such as Nigeria, Gabon, Angola, Equatorial Guinea and others – are dependent on oil exploitation for income.

"Currently, there are over 300 Palestinian children in Israeli jails, some as young as 12. Israeli military law allows for the prosecution of Palestinians as adults once they turn 16 while Israeli children can only be put on trial as adults when they are 18. However, the treatment these children receive, regardless of whether they are tried as adults or not, is certainly not proportional to their age and often causes long-term trauma for these children."

Both the Canadian and US governments have praised the January 27 elections in Honduras as a major step forward toward a return to democracy and national reconciliation. Yet the reality on the ground under the newly elected government of Porfirio Lobo is one of continuing repression and selective assassinations of those who dared to oppose the June 28, 2009 military coup.

THREATS AGAINST CARLOS AMADOR, MEMBER OF THE SIRIA VALLEY ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE, WHICH HAS OPPOSED GOLDCORP GOLD MINING IN HONDURAS SINCE 2000 From May 7-22, Carlos Amador will be on a speaking tour in Ontario, Canada, as lead up to Goldcorp Inc’s Annual Shareholder Meeting, May 19th, in Toronto. Carlos will be speaking along with Javier de Leon, from the Goldcorp Inc affected communities in Guatemala, and Karen Spring of Rights Action.

'Disclosing MI5 files about the July 7 suicide bombers to the families of those killed in the London attacks would be "impossible", counsel for the Security Service and the home secretary said today. Investigating claims that MI5 could have prevented the 2005 atrocities would involve "handing over the keys" to MI5's Thames House headquarters, Neil Garnham QC told a hearing to decide the scope of the inquests into the bombings.He said sensitive intelligence could be seen by the coroner and counsel to the inquests. However, any jurors would be subjected to intrusive vetting, he said, and neither the bereaved families nor their lawyers would be allowed to see it.'

'In Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms, No. 09-475, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case which could have an enormous effect on the future of the American food industry. This is Monsanto's third appeal of the case, and if they win a favorable ruling from the high court, a deregulated Monsanto may find itself in position to corner the markets of numerous U.S. crops, and to litigate conventional farmers into oblivion.Here's where it gets a bit dicier. Two Supreme Court justices have what appear to be direct conflicts of interest.'

'Shoppers in France could soon be able to use their finger to pay for everyday shopping, in a move that aims to tackle fraud and speed up supermarket queues. High-street bank Accord has been given permission by the French data protection authorities to start a six-month trial into the new biometric payment system. The idea had been rejected by the Commission Nationale Informatique et Liberté on several occasions in the past because of fears that storing fingerprint data posed a privacy and security risk.'

'We read so much now days about gross neglect in high places and also horrendous crimes against human kind but do we really understand the magnitude of what has happened in the past and what can happen in the future.
The activity I am referring too is not only a question of pure greed but also a question of total disregard for the UN and International Law. One could possibly say that this was one of the most serious events in our modern day history, which is ongoing.

The crime may come under the Nuclear Explosions Act of 1998 or maybe the existing Anti Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (1) which is in force and includes offences relating to nuclear weapons.There are many actors involved in this classic case of cross neglect. These ruthless men took advantage of a weak United Nations by carrying out under the table deals with a country that was under an embargo (South Africa).

They made significant sums of money out of the deal and that money belonged to the British Taxpayer. Before going into who were allegedly involved, we have to stress that on the other side of the pond there were others involved in another behind the scenes operation. George Bush and Dick Cheney were the star players along with many others involved who between them also lost three nukes and never told a soul!'

'A medical investigation into suspicious outbreaks and propaganda used to sell drugs and vaccines has exposed investment bankers at JP Morgan-Chase (JPMC) and Goldman Sachs (GS) for plotting to shock/stress, frighten, poison, and kill billions of people most profitably--pharmaceutically--according to the Editor-in-Chief of Medical Veritas journal.

While researching a powerful Partnership for New York City (PFNYC), uniting Wall Street's wealthiest industrialists, Harvard-trained public health expert, Dr. Leonard Horowitz, and investigative journalist, Sherri Kane, discovered shocking evidence of a conspiracy to commit global genocide by generating diseases and death to advance profitable pharmaceutical depopulation.'

The French army has admitted killing four children with a missile strike in a Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan."This happened on April 6, but it only came out today because, according to French military spokesman, it took that long to carry out the investigation," Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from Kabul, said on Thursday.

Author and academic Robert Reich says Republicans are blocking a Senate vote on the finance reform bill, seeking to build public support by misleading the public. Reich, former secretary of labor under President Clinton, says Republicans are claiming to want a stronger bill, when in fact they're doing Wall Street's bidding by seeking a weaker one.

Reich says evidence of their tactics comes in the form of a shady anti-financial reform group called "Stop Too Big To Fail" which is running a TV ad featuring an out-of-context quote from Reich to bolster its case. Reich says Stop Too Big To Fail is the project of Consumers for Competitive Choice, which is using an ad agency that worked with the Swift Boat Vets For Truth in 2004. TPMmuckraker says the group has already spent $1.6 million on anti-reform ads and won't say who's funding the group's efforts.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

After 10 years of traveling to Cuba and studying our policy toward the island, I’ve developed strong opinions on both. But to keep myself honest, I continually read what the “other half” thinks, and challenge myself not only to admit points of agreement, but to question my own accumulated conclusions.

Yet, often I feel like some folks just aren’t interested in an honest debate. After reading the latest brief from the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, it was like a bad movie: I wanted my money back. The Institute publishes briefs under its “Information Service of the Cuba Transition Project,” a project underwritten by you and me, the American taxpayer, through USAID.

Originally, the United States was outspoken against the coup against former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. Now, less than a year later President Obama has congratulated the new Honduran President, President Porfirio Lobo.Dr. Adrienne Pine weighs in, she recently authored the book Working Hard, Drinking Hard: On Violence and Survival in Honduras.

The right wing Tea Party “movement” has recently and again grabbed attention in the dominant media. On Tax Day last April, it garnered headlines by rolling out its standard high-decibel complaints against “big government,” deficits, taxes, and the supposed “radical” agenda of “Obama, Pelosi, and Reid” and the rest of the Democratic Party.

As usual, the Tea Partyers exempted the $1 trillion-a-year Pentagon system (which accounts for nearly half of the world’s military spending and maintains more than 1000 military bases spread across more than 130 nations), global capitalism, and plutocratic tax cuts (for the rich) from their sense of what is undermining the nation’s economic prospects and saddling future generations with unsustainable debt.

Also par for the course, they absurdly charged the militantly state-capitalist and military imperialist Barack Obama administration and the corporate-captive Democratic Party with “socialism,” “Marxism,” environmentalist “tree hugging,” peacenik-ism, pro-immigrant sentiment and other alleged “radical leftist” apostasies denounced by such high priests of hard right anti-Obama backlash as Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Bachmann, and Sarah Palin.

"There is a process going on, multinationals are trying to gain increasing control of the whole chain of food production. Consumers, farmers and food producers are all caught by the same trap. This has to be regarded as an immoral attempt to abuse patent law. The company is heading for maximising its profits by filing patents on food while at the same time one billion people is suffering from hunger," says Francois Meienberg from the Berne Declaration.

Average American households have been riding an economic roller coaster over the last quarter century. The stock market has boomed and collapsed. Housing has boomed and collapsed. The entire economy has boomed and collapsed.Where has this wild ride left the typical American family? Back to square one. And then back some more.

The typical American household, as of mid 2009, held less in real net worth — that’s assets minus debts, adjusted for inflation — than the typical U.S. household held back in 1983.But the even bigger story may be the reason why. New York University economist Edward Wolff tells that story in a new analysis of the Federal Reserve’s latest household wealth data research just published by the Bard College Levy Economics Institute.

It’s a strategy that has caught the West by surprise as they continue to react with template disappointment.Successive governments have supported colonization for decades; yet Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s recent moves have all but dispelled the façade of a secular rationale. Unfettered, expedited settlement construction in Jerusalem, with images of soldiers traipsing through Islam’s third holiest site in army fatigues, mark a new low for the Israelis; yet equally indicate a new level of brazen physical and psychological aggression that will result in a new intifada.

Multiple U.S. intelligence sources have reported to WMR that a super-classified network with only some 70 terminals in select U.S. government locations handled the parallel command-and-control activities that permitted the 9/11 terrorist attacks to be successful.

Three teenage Palestinian girls from Nablus are on the verge of scientific stardom, inspired by a desire to help blind people in their West Bank hometown. They have invented a revolutionary beeping walking cane for the blind.

Tom Goldtooth, director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, describes the work carried out by the working group on Forests at the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. Recorded live in Bolivia, Goldtooth said all peoples must reevaluate their relationship with the sacredness of Mother Earth.

Venezuelan Indigenous backed the military operation triggered by the government in the Caura River basin to prevent and put a curb on the illegal mining, a practice that has caused severe environmental damage in the area.
According to Deputy José Poyo, the communities in that part of the state of Bolivar have been victims of deforestation, river pollution by mercury used for the poaching gold exploitation and the encroachment of their habitat.

About 4.000 people have been affected by the impact of the presence of domestic and foreign miners, said at a news conference.The also president of the Indigenous Parliament of America called on residents in the basin of Caura to accompany the armed forces to combat illegal mining.

The troops sent to the area need support, because it is very difficult to control an area of 4 million hectares, stated to Prensa Latina.It is about helping with the habitat protection, the national sovereignty and the natural resources of Venezuela, he said.To Poyo, in addition to the military action, it is needed to enhance monitoring mechanisms to the phenomenon in the National Assembly as well as spaces in which the government and the communities interact in this regard.

The Bolivian Attorney General's Office summoned for Tuesday new suspects to give evidence in the case of the terrorist network neutralized in April 2009 in the eastern Santa Cruz department. According to Attorney Marcelo Soza, who is leading the probe, former soldier Zoilo Salces, and Juan Carlos Suarez, representative of the Stockbreeder Federation in the region of Beni, should state about their links with members of the extremist gangs.

Josue Shiriqui, brother of the mayor-elect in Trinidad, capital city of Beni, and the city's Mayor Moises Shiriqui, are expected to appear in court.Carlos Dellien, director of Beni's Emergency Operation Center and Hans Melgar, lawyer and brother of Alberto Melgar, former civic leader in Beni, were also called to appear in court on April 29.The Executive confiscated a weapon and munitions depot in Santa Cruz on April 12, and will investigate its relation with the paramilitary group, led by Bolivian-Croatian Eduardo Rozsa Flores, shot dead during the police operation.

According to Soza, rifles, large-bore projectiles (mauser, M16, 9 milimeters) and shotguns found last week belong to the house of Alfredo Asbun, who along with two other people were tried in the United States for armaments trafficking to Bolivia.Soza also informed about the raid carried out at the house of Ronald Castedo, former president of the main telephone company in Santa Cruz, and a place for meetings of the "Caballeros del Oriente" lodge that he said to be related to extremists.

On April 16, 2009, a group of agents from a Bolivian police unit burst into "Las Americas" Hotel in Santa Cruz, and took a paramilitary commando group by surprise.Along with Rozsa Flores, Irish Michael Dwyer and Hungarian-Croatian Arpad Magyarosi were killed in the police operation.Two other members of the terrorist cell: Bolivian-Croatian Mario Tadic and Hungarian Elod Toaso were also arrested two days later and are still prisoners in La Paz.

In the letter, McCord and Stieber said, “…we acknowledge our part in the deaths and injuries of your loved ones.” They insisted that “the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the nature of how US-led wars are carried out in this region.”

Once everyone arrived, we began to receive educational briefings from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in Chiapas. Our first talk was at the Center for Economic and Political Investigations for Community Action (CEIPAC, its Spanish acronym). The CEIPAC analysts focused on how one part of the current counterinsurgency strategy is aimed at re-claiming the land recuperated in 1994.

The government wants the land back in order to implement the Mesoamerica Project, a massive development plan stretching from southern Mexico to Colombia, which proposes a re-colonization of the land by transnational corporations. "It's all about territory," one analyst told us. For example, February 20th (20 de Febrero) community illustrates one method of reclaiming land.

Seven voluntary principles on land acquisitions announced by the World Bank and supported by the UN will legitimize and promote land grabbing in Asia, Africa and Latin America, warned Friends of the Earth International.The World Bank claims that these acquisitions will promote agricultural investment. In reality they will further entrench corporate agriculture for profit and destroy local livelihoods, states the environmentalist federation on a communiqué issued on Thursday.

They add that land grabbing is also proven to further marginalize small food producers, and local communities who already make up the largest part of the 1 billion people suffering most from hunger and poverty.This large scale land grabbing to produce food and agrofuels for export is destroying the livelihoods of millions of people, particularly peasants, indigenous peoples and fisherfolk communities.

The South African government has compared new Israeli military restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank to apartheid laws...The South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation issued a statement condemning the restrictions as "a gross violation of an individual's human rights..."

Beatriz Cariño Trujillo, a coordinator of the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA) and a member of the Center for Community Support Working Together (CACTUS), and Tyri Antero Jaakkola, a Finnish human rights observer, were killed yesterday when a paramilitary group Union of Social Wellbeing of the Triqui Region (UBISORT) ambushed the caravan, which was traveling towards the municipality of San Juan Copala.

Let’s face it. We are a country of uninformed, docile, narcissistic people who eat what we are told, when we are told, and don’t look too closely at how that food is prepared, and what it is doing to our health. We also don’t look too closely at agricultural practices and CAFOs because just as long as we have that steak on the platter with a big juicy ear of corn to go with it, we simply DO NOT CARE how it got there or where it came from. We look at a packaged chicken in the grocer’s deli section and don’t even think of it as coming from a living, breathing animal.

Jose Pertierra, the lawyer that represents Venezuela in the request of extradition of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who took refuge in the United States (where he has remained over the last five years), denounced the new farce in this case.
In statements by telephone from Washington, the jurist told journalists at the Round Table program aired yesterday by Cuban radio and television that the postponement of the meeting that had been scheduled was announced by judge Kathleen Cardone, at the request of the attorney general's office, claiming that it failed to realize it had other commitments for May 20, the date established for the meeting.

Pertierra emphasized that the purpose of that hearing was only to inform the judge about the legal state of the case, so she decided the date the trial will take place.She recalled that most of the documents related to the process remain sealed and are not accessible to the public; that the reasons for the postponement originally announced by the judge of El Paso, Texas, are not known; and that only the lawyers and the attorney general will probably attend the aforementioned meeting.The expert pointed out that Posada will actually be tried for being a liar and not for his crimes as a terrorist, like the act of sabotage carried out against a Cubana airliner that exploded in mid-air in 1976 killing all 73 people on board, or the assassination of Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo by way of a bomb at the Copacabana Hotel in 1997.

He also recalled that Venezuela requested Washington the extradition of Posada Carriles in June, 2005, shortly after his illegal entry in the US, and underlined that since that date the US attorney general's office hasn't made a decision.They "keep us dancing" with a case of perjury that they hasn't even been tried yet, which evidences an attitude of protection towards the criminal.With regard to the possibility of finally trying Posada for his crimes, Pertierra said that we would have to wonder how old the assassin would be by the time that moment comes, which makes people think that perhaps the US administration is hoping he'll die before then, since he's a rather old man.

Despite a recent Pentagon report warning that Iran's elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard is increasing its presence in Venezuela, a senior US military official told reporters today that Iran's influence in the region is focused primarily on diplomatic and commercial goals rather than military interests.
"We see a growing interest [and] engagement with Venezuela," Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, the head of US Southern Command, said of Iran's influence in the region.

But, he added, there was "no evidence" of military ties between the two countries. "It's a diplomatic, a commercial presence."Fraser's remarks, made this morning to a group of journalists in Washington, D.C., follow last week's more alarmist view presented in report delivered to Congress on Iran's military power. That unclassified Pentagon report warned of the growing presence of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Qods Force in the region.

"It is well established in the Middle East and Africa," the report says of the Qods Force, "and recent years have witnesses and increased presence in Latin America, particularly Venezuela.The report, however, did not specify what the Qods Force was doing in the region. But Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez used the report as an opportunity to lash out against Washington. "Tell me this isn't an open threat by the government of the United States against Venezuela once again using infamy and lies," he said, according to Reuters.

MK: Do you support the policies being implemented by Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales?JS: Again it's the same kind of thing; there are lots of different policies. One of the things they did that makes a lot of sense is renegotiate the contracts. It was clear that the previous governments had really given away the natural resources under terms that were disadvantageous to the people of those countries. And we say in economics, There was a lot of money on the table; they succeeded in renegotiating so there's a lot more money on the table for the people of Bolivia and Venezuela, that made a lot of sense.

If current patterns of military production, consumption and costs characterized by aggression towards humanity and nature are maintained, it is probable that future generations will not be born or born in the midst of a moribund nature.The interests of big capital block agreements to eliminate the causes and solve the consequences of climate change.

Wars and financial capital continue to be the locomotive that drags along the world economy.The ecological footprint of the rich countries surpasses five times the planet's capacity and exceeds 30% the possibilities of the latter to recover. If the process is not modified radically, then we will need two Planet Earths by 2030.

The CIA strikes are "a clear violation of international law," said Mary Ellen O'Connell, law professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School, who added that going after terrorists should be a law enforcement activity.She said the rest of the world does not recognize American authority to carry out attacks in Yemen and Pakistan, countries where the U.S. is not involved in direct armed conflict.

CIA officers who operate the drones could be arrested and charged with murder in other countries, O'Connell warned, likening it to having the Mexican police or military bomb hotels in Arizona in order to target drug lords who may be hiding there.

'Have you heard the news? It’s everywhere! The SEC and Congress have all of a sudden sprung to life and are now “getting tough” on Goldman Sachs. Is this all the first phase of a long-awaited investigation that will reveal the causes of our current economic crisis, or is this just more show trials and psychological operations designed to manipulate public opinion and make the American people feel that our elected officials are finally standing up to their campaign funders on Wall Street?

First off, let’s address these SEC charges against Goldman Sachs. At first glance you might think, oh big deal, this is just a minor civil suit that only indicts a low-level Goldman employee. Goldman will just throw some money at it and it will most likely go away. After all, Wall Street firms have already thrown over $430 billion out to derail 1500 cases against them, so what will make this any different?'

'Court documents unsealed as part of a lawsuit against drug giant Pfizer reveal how drug companies used deception and fear to manipulate women into taking dangerous hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs. "The information coming out in litigation helps us understand how a belief in a 'protective benefit' of estrogens on the heart was able to spread like wildfire through the medical community," said Jerome L. Avorn of Harvard Medical School.

Pfizer, which purchased Wyeth in October 2009, is being sued by more than 13,000 people who claim that they developed cancer and other health problems after taking HRT drugs. The plaintiffs claim that Wyeth knew of these risks all along, and downplayed them even as it exaggerated the drugs' benefits.'

'Ehud Barak, Israel's defense minister, is currently in the United States for a week of meetings and speeches. He is, in my opinion, the key suspect of being the mastermind of the false-flag terror attacks of 9-11. I am providing this brief article to explain how I think he did it.

It should be noted that Barak was Israel's minister of defense during Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip in 2008-2009. Based on the findings of the U.N. Factfinding Report written by Justice Richard Goldstone, Barak is responsible for a host of war crimes committed during that assault. The United States and other states are obliged to arrest Ehud Barak based on the findings of that report.'

'Britain appears to be evolving into the first modern soft totalitarian state. As a sometime teacher of political science and international law, I do not use the term totalitarian loosely. There are no concentration camps or gulags but there are thought police with unprecedented powers to dictate ways of thinking and sniff out heresy, and there can be harsh punishments for dissent.

Nikolai Bukharin claimed one of the Bolshevik Revolution's principal tasks was "to alter people's actual psychology". Britain is not Bolshevik, but a campaign to alter people's psychology and create a new Homo britannicus is under way without even a fig leaf of disguise.'

'The Obama administration said Tuesday it would provide more information to Congress about the Fort Hood shootings but continued to defy a subpoena request for witness statements and other documents.

After days of negotiations, the Pentagon and Justice Department informed a Senate committee that they would not comply with congressional subpoenas to share investigative records from the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood, Tex., which killed 13 people. The agencies said that divulging the material could jeopardize their prosecution of Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the accused gunman.'

SFC Donald Buswell said ,"I spent 10 years at Ft Hood. There is no way this 'official' story is legitimate. No way would a room full of combat vets allow this one shooter to get off over 100 rounds! And, it is not normal for the outside security guards to be there. They are at the MP station, and at the main gates. This means the room full of soldiers processing must have been pinned down; multiple shooters is the only plausible scenario. This sounds like Maj. Hasan has been used, and perhaps is a patsy." http://www.legitgov.org/attack_on_fort_hood_051109.html

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Brazilian President Lula Da Silva said Wednesday that the business relationship between his country and Venezuela is "irreversible" and that the integration of South American peoples will strengthen the continent's economic growth, following the signing of 22 cooperation agreements between both nations. "I understand that Venezuela has become an incredible partner in Brazil and whereabouts of many Brazilian entrepreneurs who are gaining money and increasing the standard of industrialization," the president said from Brasilia in a press conference with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez.

It also reported that bilateral trade between both nations amounting more than 5 billion dollars and is expected to grow in coming years for the purchase of raw materials to Venezuela and the construction of the Abreu e Lima refinery in Pernambuco (east). "This will balance and strengthen our balance," said Lula.
"I have no doubt about the politics of Venezuela. The relationship is irreversible between Venezuela and Brazil," Lula said it fulfilled its final year as president.
He recalled that on August 3 there will be another meeting, which will be the tenth between both countries within the signed agreements, which will oversee what was signed on Wednesday.

For its part, the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, thanked his Brazilian counterpart and all efforts for both nations to join in the areas of commercial, social, economic, cultural, technological, cooperation over the past eight years .
Under the ninth working meeting between the leaders, Chavez thanked "President Lula and stated that all this momentum in the last eight years wich he has given this relationship that scarcely existed before."He explained that "today we have agreed a new set of agreements, projects that add up to a huge network of projects, agreements, joint cooperation programs, the entire front of the battle social, political, technological, productive and cost (.. .) certainly have done what ever was done in two centuries. "

The Venezuelan leader confirmed the importance that Venezuela has given the 17th bilateral meeting since his Brazilian counterpart came to power and "ninth since we started with the initiative of Lula to meet every three or four months."
"Nobody can go back on what we have been building," Chavez said and considered that the South American union is absolutely vital to shaping a new world, called many things, one multipolar world, wich will no longer be bipolar, unipolar in wich Bolivar spoke of the balance of the universe, and everything indicates that from here in this vast territory that begins in the Caribbean, passing through this gigantic plain and ends in Patagonia, indicates that South America should begin a power pole, a project that was Bolivars,of Abreu de Lima and go in that direction. "

Chavez said that as this is the last year of Lula as president of Brazil , "I will conclude by saying that sincerely from my heart in the sirit of brotherhood, when history writes of this century, she will give you the place where you belong in this great journey of building a new world. " After finishing his words, President Lula gave him a team jersey autographed by Brazilian soccer's top players who will leave in the coming weeks the 2010 World Cup.

During this meeting, both heads of state signed 22 cooperation agreements, among which a record of commitment between the companies Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) and Braskem for the marketing of naphtha, a byproduct of oil refining and as well as other petrochemical products. In the area of finance, the Bank of Venezuela agreed with Brazil's Banco Caixa Economica Federal by increasing access to banking services between the two South American countries.

Also signed was a contract for Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (Embrapa) to conduct agricultural research in Venezuela. Chavez and Lula also reviewed the progress of joint projects for the production of soy and its derivatives. It was also initialed the establishment of a special border between the two countries to gear economic, legal, health and transportation, among others, to facilitate the integration and promotion of border tourism.

The last bilateral meeting was held in October 2009 in the northeastern Venezuelan town of El Tigre, Anzoátegui state, during which the two heads of state signed 15 agreements, mainly in the areas of oil and gas. Relations between the two nations received a boost in 2003 after the arrival of President Lula to power. These quarterly meetings pursue the strengthening of democracy through the very social, physical and energy integration, development and border security, economic complementation and integration, as well as environmental protection and preservation of the Amazon.

The recent threats against three Colombian human rights activists form part of an ongoing campaign to publicly discredit and smear their work of protecting Afro-Colombian communities in the Choco region, according to the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace.

According to the commission, the threats against Danilo Rueda, Father Alberto Franco, and Father Javier Giraldo, which include accusations of terrorism and racial discrimination, death threats, kidnapping threats, and illegal phone and email intercepts, come as a result of their work to investigate human rights abuses by paramilitary organizations since 1996 in the Bajo Atrato region of the department of Choco, ALC Noticias reported Wednesday.

In addition, threatening messages have been written via graffiti across Bogota against Father Javier Giraldo.A press release from the Center for Investigation and Popular Education, the Colombian NGO where Father Giraldo works, denounced the threats and vowed to keep fighting to protect human rights. "We reject these threats against Father Giraldo, who has tried to defend human rights and not leave the crimes against.. [human] rights to go unpunished."

In regards to the activists' operations in the Bajo Atrato region, an Afro-Colombian area severely hit by the conflict, the commission said that opponents to their work "seek to discredit and destroy the efforts [of the three activists] to protect life and land... The region is found within an internal conflict zone and the operations of businesses are destroying the ecosystems

"Residents of the Bajo Atrato account for over 16% of the total displaced people in Colombia, according to the Citizen Commission for Monitoring Displacement. This is due to paramilitaries forcefully taking control of large portions of land for cultivation and to exploit the large quantities of natural resources.

The banker stands indicted in Venezuela and is wanted for allegedly stealing funds from account holders, fraudulently obtaining U.S. dollars from Venezuela’s foreign currency administrative agency and aggravated contraband. The charges against him are contained in Article 432 or the General Law on Banks and Other Financial Institutions, Article 7 of the Law on Foreign Exchange, Articles 104 and 105 of the Organic Law on Customs, and Article 84 of the Venezuelan Penal Code.

The GMA government supports the war on terror, as well as the invasion and military occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan by the U.S. and Canada. In addition to the implementation of OBL, in July 2007 the GMA government passed the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL), or what has been dubbed the “Human Security Act.” This law closely resembles the U.S. Patriot Act and was enthusiastically supported by the Bush administration, which meant it was also a high priority for GMA.

This law is what makes the arrest and indefinite detention of activists and organizers without due process, labelled as “suspected terrorists,” permissible under the guise of national security. After the ATL was passed, the Bush administration increased military aid to the Philippines, his “major non-NATO ally,” by 1600 percent in 2008 compared with 2001. As a result, no other country in the East Asia-Pacific region receives more military funding than the Philippines, ranking it the 3rd country in the world in terms of receiving additional funding specifically for the training and education of its military

It is perhaps, then, no coincidence that the GMA government has been most aggressive in the repression of resistance groups in the Southern Philippines province of Mindanao, where the U.S. has expressed the most economic interest due to the presence of oil and natural gas. The Obama administration continues to provide the Philippines with its sizeable “foreign aid.”

Although psychiatric medications may be effective over the short term, they increase the likelihood that a person will become chronically ill over the long term. I was startled to see this picture emerge over and over again as I traced the long-term outcomes literature for schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, and bipolar illness...In addition, the...literature shows that many patients treated for a milder problem will worsen in response to a drug...and that can lead to a new and more severe diagnosis like bipolar disorder.

Two Colombian former paramilitary leaders told a reparations hearing that the demobilization process is a failure, with paramilitary fighters rearming and rejoining illegal groups, reports CM&.Speaking at a court-ordered hearing on reparation negotiations between paramilitaries and victims of their crimes, Edwar Coboz Tellez, alias "Diego Vecina," and Uber Enrique Banquez Martinez, alias "Juancho Dique," former commanders of a bloc of the AUC paramilitary coalition, claimed that the majority of their men rearmed themselves and returned to illegal armed groups after the demobilization process.

The hearing, which started on Monday, marks the first time that paramilitaries and their victims have sat down in order to negotiate in what form, and for how much, the victims will be compensated.Over 1,400 citizens from the municipality of Mampujan in the department of Bolivar are seeking reparations from the two paramilitary heads for a March 20, 2000 incident that left eleven civilians dead and thousands displaced.Colombia's Justice and Peace law, which was passed by President Alvaro Uribe in 2005, laid the framework for the mass-demobilization of over 30,000 paramilitary fighters, the majority of them from the AUC.

Colombia's Prosecutor General says demobilized paramilitary boss Salvatore Mancuso was responsible for over 10,000 deaths in the department of Norte de Santander during his time as leader of the AUC's Catatumbo bloc, which was active in the area.Mancuso appeared Tuesday in a Washington D.C. court room, where he heard charges read against him by Justice and Peace prosecutor Leonardo Augusto Cabana, via live video link-up.

"Already we have approximately, to date, more than 10,550 registered victims of acts committed by the Catatumbo bloc," said Cabana.According to Caracol TV, the list of crimes of which the former paramilitary boss has been accused also include homicide of protected people and illegal trafficking of arms.

The crimes were allegedly committed between 1999 and 2004, when Mancuso was a leader of the Catatumbo bloc AUC paramilitary group.The Catatumbo bloc is known to have committed numerous massacres and other crimes during its period of activity.Mancuso is serving a prison sentence after being extradited to the U.S.

Don't be fooled. The way the media plays the story, it was a wave of racist, anti-immigrant hysteria that moved Arizona Republicans to pass a sick little law, signed last week, requiring every person in the state to carry papers proving they are US citizens.I don't buy it. Anti-Hispanic hysteria has always been as much a part of Arizona as the Saguaro cactus and excessive air-conditioning.

What's new here is not the politicians' fear of a xenophobic "Teabag" uprising.
What moved GOP Governor Jan Brewer to sign the Soviet-style show-me-your-papers law is the exploding number of legal Hispanics, US citizens all, who are daring to vote -- and daring to vote Democratic by more than two-to-one. Unless this demographic locomotive is halted, Arizona Republicans know their party will soon be electoral toast. Or, if you like, tortillas.

The Liberal Government of Ontario's decision in the spring Budget to eliminate the ‘Special Diet’ will remove the one means by which a major section of people on social assistance had been able to compensate partly for the huge loss of real income that has taken place over the last decade and a half. It is important to understand how this attack is linked to the overall drive to solve the current financial crisis of capitalism at the expense of the working class.

The scandalous poverty that people on social assistance experience is frequently viewed, even on the Left, as simply a matter for humanitarian concern. The issue that is often missed, however, is the degree to which an assault on income support systems strengthens the hand of those seeking to weaken unions and increase the employer's ability of exploit workers.

WHO is Barrick Gold?Barrick is the world's largest gold mining company, founded and chaired by Peter Munk. Barrick is one of the biggest forces pushing Corporate Social Responsibility as an alternative to government oversight. With a former executive on the board of the Canadian Pension Fund, and a former Prime Minister on their board of directors, Barrick enjoys public funding and diplomative support.

WHY Protest Barrick?Barrick takes advantage of inadequate and poorly enforced regulatory controls to rob indigenous people of their lands, destroy sensitive ecosystems and agricultural land, support brutal military and security operations, and sue anyone who tries to report on it. Impacted communities are coming to Toronto to share their undeniable perspectives and shed light on this criminal mining giant. Come out and support them!

Three communities of the Mexican state of Jalisco could be under water if El Zapotillo dam is built. The project is promoted by right-wing administration of Felipe Calderon. The communities opposing the dam continue resisting, despite the continuous threats and harassment.

"Japan's destroyers off the coast of Somalia and the nation's first foreign military base in the post-World War Two era in Djibouti are in line with the geostrategic plans of Tokyo's allies in North America and Europe....Plans which are embodied most fully in the creation of the first U.S. regional military command outside North America in a quarter of a century, Africa Command. Long after pirates, al-Qaeda affiliates and other threats have ceased to serve as their justification, the Pentagon, NATO and Japan will retain their military footholds in Africa."

Federation Of Indigenous Quechua Of Pastaza Bring Pollution Complaint Before Congress And International Court http://tiny.cc/gjz9d

After numerous unsuccessful claims over the past year, three leaders of the Federation of Indigenous Quechua of Pastaza (FEDIQUEP) decided to come to the capital, Lima, to report to the Congress Republic pollution and violations by the company Plus Petrol.Indigenous representatives met with some lawmakers, including Elizabeth León, who promised to pursue the case further to achieve a quick solution.

Similarly, the Ombudsman gave his full support and commitment to stop the infringement of the rights of local indigenous peoples. There Dahua Chinese Aurelio denounced the company, with the support of the National Police Special Operations (DIROES) has established a climate of hostility and intimidation of the population, which comes from the demonstration led by the indigenous inhabitants in March 2008.

It should no longer be a matter of dispute that US Special Forces in Afghanistan are responsible for an increasing number of murders, whether part of targeted extra-judicial killings or the result of bad intelligence...Special Forces have become the US military version of death squads.

Father Javier Girardo...estimated that, between 1988 and 1995, more than 60,000 Colombians lost their lives to the internal conflict in Colombia – most of them at the hands of the state, either in the form of the official Colombian military or the paramilitary forces supported by the state...As for the Colombian state’s support for the paramilitaries, also known as “death squads,” that is well-known.

about me

i seek no recognition for any info on this blog.all information is purely for informational purposes.its a blog created with the sole intention of relating already well documented facts(and not well known facts)that are for everyone to share.Its in dedication to all the truthers ...